That's if they even sell them, they might be so poor, that they don't offer them.

 

They do have them there as that is where I purchased them, I haven't had any problems with them at the beginning of the season or last year for that matter. I don't think it is the tires...I think it may be something else with my suspension...I don't know, which is why I posted it here.

 

how old are your tires, it can be age, the older the tire the harder the rubber gets.

 

Could be your driving.

Snow driving tips for Quattro

 

yea chances are its just poor driving, if you go out and practice you will get better

 

definitely watch your driving.

i have found, that knowing i drive one of the safest cars in the world, causes me to push the limits to see how much the car can handle.

these experiments have both nearly killed me and my car and saved me at the same time. I have pushed the car hard...lost it...and then had the quattro and esp kick in and save me. This was in dry weather.

With snow, i will admit, the quattro is great in the sense that you will never get stuck or skid down a hill. but it doesn't make us invincible. i found that i could drive faster and safer than most people in the snow (25-30mph) but there were still some suv's that could drive faster. i remember this navigator that passed me on the snowy highway.

also, i am only running 15" all season tires. i could imagine that having larger studded tires would probably help. but still, we're not invincible.

if you're expecting to be able to drive 50-60 in the snow, forget about it.

i have seen some videos of guys on the autobahn running 160-180 in the rain...that blows my mind. Our cars are safe, but that's just crazy.

 

I read that article. I like how it says "it will NOT keep you glued to the road. It will NOT help you stop. It WILL allow you to go too fast for all conditions."

So true.. AWD doesn't perform miracles, you can't rely in it too much. That's why women (crazy moms) always wreck their SUV's because they rely on their AWD too much, thinking they can do anything with it.

 

And if you think about it, most SUV's are not AWD full time. Most require you to set the AWD in motion.
This is a bigger resaon why so many SUV drivers get into trouble. They just don't understand.

 

I just bought a used 2001 A4 Quattro and have the same issue. I have driven many AWD vehicles, and this is the only one that has behaved this way. It's just as the original author describes...extreme rear-end sway in wet/snowy conditions, especially when crossing lanes...almost like you're going into a fishtail.

I have not had a chance to check it out in detail yet, so I am definitely looking for suggestions. I know this thread is 5 years old, but hoping an experienced A4 owner will have some hints.

With my (so far) brief research, I haven't come up with much, but the car has just over 100k miles and I am leaning toward rear suspension bushings, wheel bearings, struts, or similar. I am hoping it's not an issue with the AWD or ABS, which I don't think it is since it will happen when coasting and not using the brakes at all.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Nate

 

So, after some research and digging around on the car, I've made some changes and found vast improvements in wet handling on this car. Thought I would share in case anyone else runs into this issue.

It turns out the previous owner replaced one front wheel bearing, but never bothered to line the car up. Also, there were mismatched (although same metric size) tires on the car. The rear tires were severely worn on the inside edges.

I replaced the tires and got an alignment. The handling is much, much better! I think there is still some play in one outer tie rod, but I plan to replace that soon. So, I think it was a combination of very poor alignment (mechanic asked if the car had hit something) and the mismatched tires with bad wear.

I am just happy it wasn't something much worse!